BOSNIAN CONSTITUTION NEGOTIATIONS: DO NOT LISTEN TO BAKIR IZETBEGOVIC, THE "BOSNIAN YANUKOVYCH

National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina TO: EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT December 5, 2021. CONTENT: DO NOT LISTEN TO BAKIR IZETBEGOVIC, THE "BOSNIAN YANUKOVYCH" Appendix I: The proper Bosnian response to violations of the Dayton Constitution by Mr. Dodik and Republic of the Serbs Appendix II: How does deeply unpopular Mr. Izetbegovic continue to hold power in Bosnia? ──────────── Author: Tarik Borogovac, National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Executive Summary: Neither Bosniaks as an ethnic group, nor the group of all Bosnian citizens who wish to protect Bosnia and citizens rights, are represented in the ongoing negotiations on the Bosnian constitution. Mr. Bakir Izetbegovic is not a legitimate representative for these groups, nor is he sincere when he claims that he supports Bosnian or Bosniak interests. - No Bosnian patriot would ever agree to negotiate about creation of new ethnic entities, genocide denial, or transfer of state property to the Serbian entity. - Any agreement that meets any of Mr. Milorad Dodik’s objectives with respect to these questions would be a violation of Bosnian statehood and Bosnian citizens’ rights, and has strong potential to destabilize Bosnia. - The US and EU should neither participate, mediate, nor put stock in any agreement signed by this individual. Appearing to facilitate or support any such agreement, would make the EU and US appear as perpetrating and endorsing violations of the Bosnian state and Bosnian people’s rights. ──────────── In January 2019, it was proven in a court of law that the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was a Russian agent that undermined Ukraine in a way that enabled occupation of a part of Ukraine by Russia. The similar situation has happened in Bosnia, and continues to this day, with Mr. Bakir Izetbegovic playing the role of Yanukovych. During the 75 years of Yugoslavia, a regime dominated by Serbia, many Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Macedonians, even Croats and Albanians were indoctrinated into Serbian nationalism through schools and media propaganda. Yugoslav state security recruited such indoctrinated individuals from non-Serb communities, and helped them infiltrate religious organizations, state-run companies, as well as political movements and republic governments. The Milosevic regime in Serbia was able to use these networks of operatives and collaborators during his wars of aggression and ethnic cleansing, most successfully in Bosnia, in order to generate favorable political outcomes for those campaigns. The Dayton constitution and its creation of the ethnically clean Republic of the Serbs are one such result. Alija izetebegovic, the former President of Bosnia, was such an operative, along with associates which included Haris Silajdzic, their "lawyer" Kasim Trnka, and others. For more details you can refer to the book "The war in Bosnia". https://www.amazon.com/Books-Muhamed-Borogovac/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AMuhamed+Borogovac This network of operatives is still loyal to the current regime in Belgrade, and is still active due to the Dayton constitution’s mechanisms that keep it perpetually in a position of political power. It is still used by the regime in Belgrade in carrying out Milosevic’s ideology. Today they are led by Bakir Izetbegovic, Alija Izetbegovic’s son, who inherited his father’s party, SDA. Although he is personally despised in Bosnia among Bosniaks, who should be his base, and not elected, he is able to maintain political power perpetually due to many factors negotiated in Dayton. This is further explained in Appendix II. Bakir Izetbegovic’s role is no different from his father's; he is working for the interest of the regime in Serbia and their puppet Republic of the Serbs in Bosnia, against the interest of the Bosnian people. In other words, Bakir Izetbegovic is the Bosnian Yanukovych. Of many events that show Mr. Izetbegovic’s duplicity, the most recent and currently relevant one, is regarding the so-called legitimate representation proposal for election law reform. This proposal is one of the key issues that is included in the agenda for negotiations happening right now. Legitimate representation refers to Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) party boss Dragan Covic’s desire to change Bosnia’s election law by drawing new borders around a new ethnic territory for Croats. Bosniaks and all citizens interested in ending the ethnic apartheid system of ethnic officials, laws and territories, and all those who understand that drawing new ethnic boundaries will escalate into violence on the ground, are against this proposal. The proposal would, clearly, even further violate Bosnia’s citizens’ human rights -- for example the rights of all non-Croats in the proposed territory, and all Croats outside of it. Repeatedly, the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg has ruled that Bosnia’s Dayton constitution, with ethnic territories, ethnic government posts, and the principle of ethnic group representation, makes citizens unequal and violates their human rights (Sejdic & Finci vs. Bosnia; Zornic vs. Bosnia; Pilav vs. Bosnia). Bosnia cannot progress towards EU membership, cannot become stable and prosperous, or attract any meaningful foreign investment, as long as it continues to be an ethnic apartheid that violates it’s own citizens’ rights in these ways. The legitimate representation proposal would only push Bosnia further in the direction of ethnic-based violations of human rights. Rather than having a Croat territory defined in order to elect an ethnic Croat president, there should not be ethnic presidents at all! Mr. Izetbegovic has given very emotional speeches to Bosniaks on this issue. A recent example was to Bosniak immigrants in Western Europe, in Brussels, where he repeated strong promises that he "will not give in to Covic's requests regarding election law reforms." However, this statement was recently exposed as a shameful lie by Damir Arnaut, a member of Bosnian Parliament from an opposition party, who described on Twitter a recent meeting he was in with OSCE representatives. We quote (translated from Bosnian): At the meeting with the OSCE Secretary General. HDZ is reminding us that Bakir, in the presence of OSCE, signed that all "constituent peoples" should have "legitimate representation". Mr. Arnaut attached a facsimile of an agreement between Izetbegovic and Covic from June 2020, and highlighted a paragraph that proves that Bakir indeed reached an agreement with Covic more than a year ago, to support the “legitimate” ethnic representation principle. The agreement was titled: POLITICAL AGREEMENT ON THE PRINCIPLES OF AMENDMENTS TO THE ELECTION LAW OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA. The paragraph that Mr. Arnaut highlighted was point 2 of the Agreement (translated from Bosnian): The Parties to this Agreement shall implement item #1 of this Agreement starting with the drafting of amendments to the B&H Election Law, in order to ensure legitimate election and legitimate political representation of constituent peoples and citizens at all administrative and political levels, in the B&H Presidency and House of Peoples. as well as the guaranteed, active and passive suffrage of every citizen on the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. So, Bakir Izetbegovic forcefully promised to Bosniak diaspora in Europe that he would never agree to something, that he had already agreed and committed to, in the presence of OSCE Secretary General: that the change of the Election Law would be according to Mr. Covic's wishes, and the constituent ethnicities principle. Lying about core principles to the very people that he is pretending to represent, makes Izetbegovic an illegitimate representative, to say the least. There is another layer of this deception. We see it in the form of rumors that circulate periodically ever since the war, with another round occurring recently. The gist is that the EU and US are forcing Bosniak leaders to make terrible concessions and accept changes that further violate Bosnians’ rights. This narrative is propagated because it provides Mr. Izetbegovic an excuse to break his public promises to Bosniaks (and fulfill his back room promises to Mr. Covic and Mr. Dodik). As part of this narrative, US envoys such as Escobar and Palmer, as well as visitors from the European Council, are rebranded as biased authorities whose decrees Bosniak politicians are forced to obey. Taken at face value, it would mean that the EU and US are committing what amounts to aggression on the sovereignty of Bosnia. On the street this plays out as: ”The EU and US hate Bosniaks and want to destroy Bosnia because they are bigoted against Muslims”. This is also how Alija Izetbegovic’s signing the Dayton Agreement was explained to many Bosnians. Therefore, Mr. Bakir Izetbegovic is executing a “man in the middle” attack. In addition to lying about his intentions to the Bosniak public, he is also giving false signals to the international representatives about what Bosnians want, with terrible consequences. Recall that two weeks ago, the US, joined by Germany and other leading European countries, was discussing putting sanctions against those who unilaterally violated Dayton. That threat was aimed at Mr. Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Republic of the Serbs entity, in response to Mr. Dodik’s declarations that the Serbian entity would pull out of the Dayton constitution and work toward separating from Bosnia. Mr. Dodik also made thinly veiled threats of a new conflict, with statements that the Serbs in the army were on board with his plan, and that they would peacefully disarm the non-Serbs. It was rhetoric that reminded us of similar statements by Milosevic and Karadzic in the 1990s, and the world took notice. However, on November 24 and 25, 2021, Izetbegovic came to Mr. Dodik’s aid, by agreeing to negotiate about Mr. Dodik’s demands! The correct action would have been to file an action in Constitutional court regarding Mr. Dodik's unconstitutional actions (see Appendix I). Instead, by informing them that he had decided to find a way out of the crisis through negotiations with Mr. Dodik and Mr. Covic, Mr. Izetbegovic even legitimized Dodik’s militant and unconstitutional actions, by signaling that the Bosniak side is flexible and willing to discuss them. In this way he tied the US and EU hands in putting pressure on Mr. Dodik and the Serbian entity and turned it into a negotiation that opens questions that deeply threaten the Bosnian state and the Bosnian people. Here is the statement of the European Union, which clearly states what Izetbegovic, Dodik and Covic agreed to negotiate: "Together with key EU partners EU will urgently facilitate further talks with Dodik, Izetbegovic and Covic on: 1. State property 2. High Representative Inzko’s genocide denial imposition 3. Constitutional / electoral reforms 4. Return to the institutions noted willingness to move forward. The EU has noticed the willingness in Bosnia to move forward." This agenda is a travesty. None of these points should be negotiated about, as opening these questions is disastrous to the Bosnian state and the Bosnian people. Any Bosnian should walk out of any room where any of these offensive topics is mentioned; not doing so is treason. The only reason for this agenda is because of Mr. Izetbegovic's personal willingness to negotiate about the very things that Mr. Dodik wants to change. Mr. Izetbegovic’s willingness is why he is Mr. Dodik’s preferred person to negotiate with, and to form coalitions with. Mr. Izetbegovic’s participation in the negotiations is a choice made by Mr. Dodik, not by the people that he pretends to represent. The state property item refers to Mr. Dodik’s desire for the SERBIAN ENTITY to take over all property of Bosnia and Herzegovina within the SERBIAN ENTITY entity borders. The Dayton Constitutional Court has ruled that this is unconstitutional, and Bosnia owns all the property. This would be a theft of large amounts of land and infrastructure, and is a step toward Mr. Dodik’s wish for the SERBIAN ENTITY to separate from Bosnia completely. As a decision of the Constitutional Court, the question is closed in a way favorable to Bosnia, and there is no reason to agree to talk about it and open the issue. Just by talking Izetbegovic is committing treason against Bosnia. The Law on Genocide Denial, implemented by former High Representative Valentin Inzko came about only this year, after many years of denials by the SERBIAN ENTITY that genocide occurred and that the SERBIAN ENTITY police and military, as well as their political and military leaders, carried out genocide against Bosniaks and Croats. This is established in international courts including the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and in several cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Mr. Dodik himself is a denier, and denial has been policy in the SERBIAN ENTITY up to now, affecting broadly what children are taught in schools in the SERBIAN ENTITY, which monuments are put up and which ones are disallowed, the articles printed in newspapers and TV news. This law in principle should improve that and put us on a path of reconciliation through truth. How can anyone agree to a discussion on whether a basic principle of justice about genocide should be applied? We already discussed the election law proposals, but we can mention one more reason why reopening that question in talks, especially involving Dodik, Covic and Izetbegovic is disastrous. Namely, the SERBIAN ENTITY has tried declaring independence in the past, and holding a referendum, in attempts that were thwarted by the Constitutional Court, which found no basis for such actions in the Dayton Constitution. We believe that the election law changes, which would be realized as amendments to the constitution, would be designed to open a constitutional path to the dissolution of Bosnia that does not exist today. This would complete Milosevic’s project of securing an ethnically clean state for Serbs on the territory of Bosnia, by means of genocide. Of course, the process of securing independence would still lead to new atrocities on the ground, as, for example, the SERBIAN ENTITY would still desire to secure a corridor to connect its western part to Serbia. Finally, the precedent would inspire future nationalist ideologues and strong men to apply Milosevic’s recipe. All three agenda items imply painful changes for Bosnia. While pretending to be the pro-Bosnia negotiator, by simply agreeing to even discuss these sacred things Mr .Izetbegovic is committing blatant treason. Dear EU and US officials, we understand that you cannot, and are not trying to enforce any solutions onto legitimate representatives of Bosnia. We understand that the EU and the US are merely mediators and Bosnians of all ethnicities have to come together to fix these problems. However, we wish you to know that EU and US participation in these false talks, opens up basic closed questions, such as genocide denial, state property and election laws, and elevate false representatives who do not speak on the behalf of the Bosnian people. Please know that this is only another phase of the Serbian aggression on Bosnia, on behalf of an ideology led previously by Milosevic -- the Butcher of the Balkans. Please do not participate in them and lend them credibility. ──────────── Appendix I: The proper Bosnian response to violations of the Dayton Constitution by Mr. Dodik and Republic of the Serbs The proper response to Mr. Dodik’s announcement, several weeks ago, that the Republic of the Serbs would stop recognizing any formal authority of the Bosnian government, including decisions of the Constitutional Court was in effect a declaration that it would stop following the Dayton Constitution. The Dayton Constitution has ways of dealing with this, and a natural response would be to refer Mr. Dodik, his supporters, and the SERBIAN ENTITY entity for prosecution under the law. The US and EU, through the Office of High Representative, would be able to play a part in this process. We explained above why this process has not taken place -- because Mr. Izetbegovic rushed to negotiate with Mr. Dodik about his demands, and his lack of legitimacy to enter into those negotiations was not understood by the EU and US. However, there is an even better answer -- Bosnia patriots should begin the process of restoring the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Put simply, the SERBIAN ENTITY and the Dayton Constitution were created in the Dayton Agreement, and if the SERBIAN ENTITY chooses to not respect the Constitution, then the Dayton Agreement is dead. When a party to a legal agreement chooses to not respect the agreement, the natural legal remedy is a return to “status quo ante.” In this case, that is the restoration of the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This makes the SERBIAN ENTITY into merely an illegally occupied territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina -- as it was before the Dayton Agreement. In truth, this is just one more of many valid reasons why the Republic of B&H constitution should be restored: None of the signers of the Dayton Agreement had the authority to do it. It is an agreement that replaced the constitution, but President Alija Izetbegovic did not have the constitutional power to change the constitution under which he was elected. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman were presidents of foreign nations, and their participation in changing the constitution of a foreign nation has no precedent in law. Furthermore, the Dayton Constitution was never ratified by the Bosnian Parliament or people, in the procedures prescribed under the constitution. Rather it was illegally imposed by foreign powers during a state of war. At the time, Serbia, represented by Mr. Milosevic, was under UN sanctions for ongoing aggression in Bosnia. It was clear at the time, and later confirmed in multiple judgements at the ICJ and ICTY, that forces loyal to Serbia and Mr. Milosevic’s ideology, and armed and supported by Serbia, had committed genocide and a campaign of ethnic cleansing that Milosevic masterminded. In light of that, the establishment of the SERBIAN ENTITY in Dayton, on ethnically cleansed occupied territory, can be seen as a reward for aggression, ethnic cleansing and genocide. This should make the Dayton Agreement invalid as well. As we mentioned, the Dayton Constitution’s ethnic territories, ethnic laws, and ethnic government positions violate Citizens’ basic human rights, as decided by the International Human Rights Court in Strasbourg. The Dayton Constitution is not a basis for making a government of Bosnia that can function in either serving its citizens, nor reforming itself. In contrast, the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had none of these problems. Now, with the SERBIAN ENTITY deciding not to honor the Dayton Agreement, the Dayton Constitution really is dead, and we at the National Congress of Bosnia and Herzegovina call on the US and EU envoys to recognize this fact and help us transition back to the legal “status quo ante” -- the Constitution of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. ──────────── Appendix II: How does deeply unpopular Mr. Izetbegovic continue to hold power in Bosnia? The ways in which Mr. Izetbegovic has held on to influence and power in the country shows both how the Dayton Constitution was designed to perpetuate the ethnic apartheid, and that Mr. Izetbegovic does not have legitimacy to represent Bosniaks as a people. The SDA has exerted and maintained control of the economy in the regions that are majority Bosniak, by installing their own people into remaining public companies, favoring friends in privatization, and using many forms of government to choose allies as winners in the private sector, and keep them dependent. This control extends to the media. For example, Mr. Izetbegovic’s wife, Sebija Izetbegovic, has gained control of the country’s biggest and most famous hospital, and has run it into the ground. In the poor country where the remnants of the ruined economy are so tied in with the political parties, there is a massive personal economic risk of not obeying party bosses, like Mr. Izetbegovic. Note, the same has played out in the SERBIAN ENTITY and in the Croat-dominated areas. The ethnically-based territories and election laws in the Dayton constitution are designed to always favor ethnic-based parties, such as the SDA. The mechanism is self-enforcing. For example, parties that strive to cut across the ethnic principles, and include mixed election lists are easily attacked. Doing so in one’s ethnic region sacrifices the prescribed balance of ethnicities in favor of other ethnicities. When such a good will act is not returned in kind by areas with a different majority, then there is a fear of being “outvoted”. Note, despite this, in the last parliamentary elections, the Bosniak areas have elected a significant number (6/21) of non-Bosniaks from non-ethnic parties into the parliament. This is at least partly because of the erosion of support for the SDA and the ethnic concept. This undermines further the argument by Mr. Covic that Bosniaks will outvote others. Dayton specifies many ways by which unpopular party bosses, who are not elected by the people, still get powerful and leading positions in the government. In this way, Mr. Izetbegovic currently sits in the House of Constituent Peoples, a powerful 15 member body that serves as an upper house of Dayton parliament, and which is not elected by the people, but by the parties. The SDA, which declares itself falsely as a pro-Bosnian party, constantly is in a coalition with the anti-Bosnian Serb SNSD, and the Croat HDZ party. They attack each other rhetorically, but always reinforce each other when it is time to make a coalition. The SNSD and HDZ always choose the SDA as the coalition partner, regardless of the SDA’s bad showings in elections. Within the SDA itself Mr. Izetbegovic wields unassailable authority, and on several occasions in the past has expelled other members of party leadership who disagreed with him. For those reasons, Bakir Izetbegovic is able to perpetually hold political influence, and even occupy public office in government, despite having no legitimate support. And can use that appearance of political influence in order to pretend to be a leader and undermine Bosnian statehood and citizens’ rights. https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRJ-WMClErumiMWSw4DJ2W8918Qzayk2flwpvoBAmg3CuB25vbh7cBCWHWmzgqDByeIyq_FL7z8Ra9x/pub